Bring The Noise
	The newest digital players can even write their own songs
	By JENNIFER L. SCHENKER

Posted Sunday, March 17, 2003 14:05 GMT
So you wanna be a rock-'n'-roll star? Well, listen now: skip the electric guitar, get yourself a MadPlayer — a handheld device developed in France for London-based MadWaves.

It's a one-stop musical shop — an MP3 player for grabbing music from the Internet, an FM tuner, and a karaoke machine that allows you to download backing music, view the lyrics and sing. But its chief function is as an interactive music composer that creates original songs on the fly.

Pick one of 21 styles (like hip-hop or house music) and push a button. Out pops a fully composed song, with an introduction, ending, chord progression, melody and rhythm. (Chart success and groupies not included.) Music executives think it has great potential for getting tech-addicted kids to interact with music. Less ambitious? Settle for Microsoft's Media2Go, a software platform based on Windows CE that stores up to 8,000 songs or 175 hours of video. It should be on sale by the end of the year, when your MP3 player is full.

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